I don’t have any of Superman’s special powers.

That’s true whether we’re talking about the iconic comic book hero or Dan Haney. He’s the IT maestro and Jim Thorpe native who orchestrates the Palmerton Area School District’s computer system so well he’s been nicknamed the same.

In fact, my computer skills are so lacking I probably share more in common with the superhuman than the super Heaney. After all, all these articles are a type of endless fight for Truth, Justice, and (improving) the American Way, a fight often waged by publicizing the pitfalls of the typical American diet.

Which at its worst is pure Kryptonite, whether you call Palmerton, Lehighton, or Krypton your home.

One way to counteract this crystalline, green, and poisonous substance is to eat less like the average American and more like a run-of-the-mill Mediterranean. In other words, to limit your ingestion of ultra-processed fast foods and focus on consuming plant foods - such as vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, and olive oil - while eating more fish and less red meat.

And as the years progress, proof that the eating pattern known as the Mediterranean diet does more than help you maintain a healthy heart and weight continues to grow.

In 2017, for instance, a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society analyzed the diets of nearly 6,000 older people (average age 67) and administered tests to them involving mostly memory and attention skills. The researchers found those who’s eating patterns closely resembled the Mediterranean diet had less cognitive decline.

In 2018, a review published Molecular Psychiatry that encompassed 41 observational studies found the Med diet lowered the risk of depression regardless of age.

Something else from 2018 not to be dismissed. It was the first of six years in a row in which the Med diet placed first overall in U.S. News & World Reports’ annual diet rankings.

What makes the 2018 win particularly notable is that the Med diet also won what’s arguably the most important subcategory that year: easiest to follow. (In 2023, it finished third in that subcategory.)

Fast forward to March 2023. A study published then found fewer postmortem indicators of Alzheimer’s disease in the brains of people who had closely followed the Med diet (or the MIND diet) compared to people who hadn’t. It’s a finding that gained added gravitas when the Alzheimer’s Association released information in July on the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease in the United States.

Part of that information included the estimation that about 1 out of every 8 of citizens over 65 in three separate states (New York, Maryland, and Mississippi) are now afflicted with the disease.

But the import of another study published later in March overshadows any of that. Not only was it performed on still-functioning brains, but it also reinforces an important aspect about genetics featured in this column more than a few times.

That a favorable lifestyle can negate unfavorable genetics.

Based on self-reports made by over 60,000 Brits between the ages of 40 and 69 over the course of 9 years and now kept in the UK Biobank, the study published in BMC Medicine compared those “sticking closely” to a Med diet to those who hadn’t. Participants with the highest Med diet adherence, according to two dietary questionnaires, had a 23 percent lower risk of developing dementia compared to those with the lowest.

Better still, though, was what was learned when the researchers considered the group’s genetics. They found those genetically predisposed to developing dementia but who still closely followed the Med diet received the same degree of benefit.

Let’s be clear here about how important that fact is. It means the 23% lower risk of developing dementia by sticking closely to the Med diet is “independent of genetic risk.”

It also means this study serves as additional proof of epigenetics - a concept professed in this column well before it was given that name. What the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control defines as “the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work.”

Recent epigenetic research has been so definitive that the Harvard University website now declares “the old idea that genes are ‘set in stone’ has been disproven. Nature vs. Nurture is no longer a debate.”

That the debate is done should be welcomed news to you - if you don’t mind the additional responsibility that comes with it. Because if your DNA is not your destiny, that means whether or not you’re healthy and happy is ultimately decided by you.

By how healthfully you eat, how regularly you exercise, how soundly you sleep, and how mindfully you go about all that and everything else.

See it as work. See it as play.

Either way, it’s the never-ending experimentation that’s essential to do in the pursuit of optimal health and fitness.